Take a Deeper Dive and Learn about Infectious Diseases

Our Course, Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases is on Coursera

Introduction

Not so long ago, it was almost guaranteed that you would die of an infectious disease. In fact, had you been born just 150 years ago, your chances of dying of an infectious disease before you've reached the tender age of 5 would have been extremely high.

Since then, science has come a long way in understanding infectious diseases - what they are, how they spread, and how they can be prevented. But diseases like HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, or the flu are still major killers worldwide, and novel emerging diseases are a constant threat to public health. In addition, the bugs are evolving. Antibiotics, our most potent weapon against bacterial infections, are losing their power because the bacteria are becoming resistant.

About our MOOC

We’ve developed a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to explore the major themes of infectious diseases dynamics.

The course is free, and available to anyone with an internet connection — you can take in on a PC, a Mac, or on your smartphone.
The course is available to you on-demand, so you can start the course whenever you like, and complete the course at your own pace.
You’ll also get the opportunity to engage with others who are learning about the same topics from around the world.

Sample Videos

Epidemics In-depth

After we’ve covered the basics, we discuss at the dynamics of the flu, and why we're worried about flu pandemics.
We cover the dynamics of childhood diseases such as measles and whooping cough, which were once considered almost eradicated, but are now making a comeback.
We'll explore Malaria, and use it as a case study of the evolution of drug resistance.

We even look at social networks - how diseases can spread from you to your friends to your friends' friends, and so on. And of course we talk about classic epidemiology, like vaccination, but also how mobile phones, social media and crowdsourcing are revolutionizing disease surveillance, giving rise to a new field of digital epidemiology.